HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAHEEDA REHMAN 03 FEBRUARY

This is the second year in succession when I forgot her birthday. Could there be a hidden mental process involved in my repeatedly forgetting her birthday besides the fact her famous book by Nasreen Munni Kabir titled ‘Conversations With Waheeda Rehman’ is always at my bedside table? Perhaps the hidden mental process is secretly wishing for her not to become older!

Her films have a great association with my childhood and boyhood days and even later days. For some reason, until about three years back, I thought of her as a Telugu origin actress. This was because, at the age of 17 years, she was the find of Guru Dutt in his movie C.I.D. to be directed by Raj Khosla and she was discovered by him in Hyderabad?

Waheeda in C.I.D. performing the famous number Kahin Pe nigaahen (Pic courtesy: myhindiforum.com)

Anyway, the other night, I was listening to Annu Kapoor in the late night Mastii.. show and he brought out how she refused to act in the movie with revealing clothes as expected by the director Raj Khosla and how despite that, because of her superb histrionics, her career still progressed to the extent of making her the finest actress in Hindi movies.

(pic courtesy: www.youtube.com)

What is so special about her? Could it be just the innumerable awards and honours that have been conferred on her; including the Living Legend Award conferred to her by the President of India in Dec 2013 on the occasion of 25th anniversary of NDTV when they honoured 25 Living Legends?

(Pic courtesy: www.ndtv.com)

C.I.D. was not the first movie in which I saw her. I saw it many years later. She was a vamp in the movie and one of her songs: Jaata kahan hai deewaane was banned due to its suggestive double entendre’. I saw her other song: Kahin pe nigaahen kahin pe nishaana and was instantly captivated by her; her eyes speak, she had that intrinsic innocence even as a vamp.

In my later life, speaking with her eyes and her likeable elegance and grace are some of the attributes that I associated her with. She is a superb dancer; not of the same class as the other Tamil origin actress Vujaynthimala (who is to be seen to be believed in Hontho pe aisi baat (Jewel Thief) and Jisse tu kabool karle (Devdas)). However, the overall effect of her dances comes out even better than Vyjaynthimala’s. Some of my favourite dance numbers of hers are: Piya tose naina laagi re, and Mose chhal kiye jaaye (boh from Guide), Raat bhi hai kuchh bheegi bheegi (Mujhe Jeene Do; which is her first movie that I saw. She was a courtesan who falls in love with a dacoit Sunil Dutt. This is the first scene in the movie where he sees her. She did with her full clothes on what actresses of today won’t be able to do with revealing clothes); Paan khayo sainyya hamaro (Teesri Kasam) and a difficult dance number when she was drunk in Prem Pujaari: Rangeela re tere rang mein youn rangaa hai mera man.

Waheeda in sad roles? Well, her acting in sad roles makes you feel for her and her situation in the movie to an extent that you feel personally involved to rescue her from the situation. Some of my favourite numbers in this respect are: Badale badale mere sarkaar nazar aate hain..(Chaudhvinh Ka Chaand), Jhoom jhoom dhalati raat (Kohra), Kahin deep jale kahin dil (the song that won Shakeel Badayuni one of his four Best Lyricist awards in Bees Saal Baad), Meri baat rahi mere man mein (Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam) and Rangeela Re (Prem Pujari).

So, happy birthday Waheeda Rehman. Thank you very much for bringing enormous happiness, joys, enchantment, and wonderment into our lives. You are a Living Legend and we are proud of belonging to the same era that has been made more beautiful by your eternal grace and elegance.

Let me end by giving you her duet with Dev Anand in the 1960 movie Kaala Bazaar. The song has been put together by Shailendra, Sachin Dev Burman, Geeta Dutt (who sang many of her songs both in Dev Anand and her (Geeta Dutt’s) husband Guru Dutt’s movies.

2 Comments

When I compare your blog with other similar blogs particularly blogs related to Indian movies, I find Sunbyanyname far superior. The quality of posts is excellent in content as well as authenticity. Your song selection is superb and the themes selected by you are genuinely great. Kudos to you Ravi (Sunbyanyname) for this great blog. According to me yours is the best blog on FB.

That’s high praise Vipan Kohli and I am grateful to you for that. I invariably compare such praise with my acting and directing days (for plays). Finally, after months of hard-work, you wait for that 10 seconds of applause during the curtain call! It is worth it!!

I am humbled by a comparison at this stage; which is that a ‘fauji‘ gives his life for just two inches of ribbon!

About me

I have done a long stint in the Indian Navy that lasted for nearly thirty seven years; I rose as far as my somewhat rebellious and irreverant nature allowed me to. On retirement, in Feb 2010, the first thing that occured to me, and those around me, was that I Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (you will find an article with this title in this blog) and hadn't lost all my noodles and hence thought of a blog titled 'This 'n That'. I later realised that every third blog is called 'This 'n That' and changed the name to 'Sunbyanyname'.
I detest treading the beaten track. This blog offers me to air 'another way' of looking at things. The idea is not just to entertain but also to bring about a change. Should you feel differently, you are free to leave your comments. You can leave comments even when you agree and want to share your own experience about the topic of the blog post.
Impudent or otherwise, I have never been insousciant and I am always concerned about the betterment of community, nation and the world. I hope the visitors of this blog would be able to discern it.